Today is the tomorow you worried about yeasterday
by akaeve
Summary: Response to a NFC Challenge Riddle Me This


"**Today, is the tomorrow, you worried about yesterday."**

They found the body lying, how you would expect a body to be lying. Well in murder movies or in something like CSI. Semi-coma position, the body face down. Its arm stretched round above its head, the leg twisted to the side. Great someone with a sense of humour or the macabre. What was strange, was the white chalk-line encasing the deceased.

"What you got Ducky?" Gibbs had shouted, coffee in hand and his usual confident walk. "Time of death?"

"Strange Jethro, the liver probe says one thing but the decomposition of the body another. I would say frozen in time. But I did find this." handing Gibbs a card.

"_**Time**_ can change me, but I can't **trace** _**time**_"

the word trace was bold and underlined, the word time was in red and it was in italic, the emphasis on the time.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say "Changes" David Bowie 1971. Hunky Dory. If I remember, correctly".

"But what did she die from?"

"That Jethro, Mr Palmer and I will determine when we get her home to autopsy."

As he and Jimmy turned the body over, for the medics to lift her into the body bag, Gibbs noticed a playing card where the body had been lain. A JOKER. A wild card in poker and many other card games. Or was the murderer, a joker. He re-read the card………..

****

The letter was on his desk when they returned. He slipped the latex gloves over his hands and opened the envelope. The contents fell on the desk. It was neither printed nor written, it was newsprint. Words cut and pasted onto a sheet of paper.

"_Today, is the tomorrow, you worried about yesterday. Yesterday had nothing to fear, but today was the tomorrow you feared yesterday. So what are you worried about today, as tomorrow will never come. It is your future, and the past cannot be __**changed**__**. **__Only __**time**__ will tell."_

The card on the desk. A tarot card, {The Fool or The Jester}, it stared up at him. This guy was good. He was playing him for a fool, and he, the sender, was the jester, the joker. The one card that could have a double meaning.

"What you got Boss" McGee had questioned

"Gloves first." He ordered, handing the letter to McGee. He picked the card from the desk.

"Abby is going to have a field day Gibbs." Dinozzo replied, looking at the card.

Gibbs sighed, he hated riddles and jokes, 'specially at his or his teams' expense.

****

"Abby, what you find?" handing her a caf-pow.

"Difficult Gibbs, but definitely yesterdays paper"

"You can tell that from just looking at the print?" he asked questionably.

"I would like to say, Oh great one, yes, but I can not tell a lie. The date was on the back of one of the words. As for prints, forget it, smudged, no clear prints. Who ever did this. Put it together, they wore gloves. But it was the Washington Times. Again that was on the back of the words."

"I owe you Abbs." He left the lab. Washington Times? Washington Times. Times, times, why did it always come back to Times, time. He began to hate, no respect this guy. He was good. McGee and Ziva what had they found out about the dead body.

****

"Ok McGee, start at the top. Name?"

"Clara Watson Petty Officer Navy. Divorcee. Husband, Jeff Clarke. Sergeant in the Marines. Divorce, amicable. Tour of duties. Never saw each other." Tim replied

"Why did it sound so familiar." he wondered.

"Oh Boss, Ducky said she was pregnant when she died." McGee said quietly.

"So was it the husbands? Get Him in here now. And no, I don't care if he's half way back to Iraq. Turn the bloody plane back. That's an order McGee."

"Yesss Boss." as McGee picks up the phone.

"Oh Ziva, what Corps is the husband in?"

"Marine Intelligence Corps out of Washington HQ".

Gibbs crushed the coffee cup in his hand and threw it in the bucket. That's all he needed, an intelligent Marine.

****

Marine Sergeant Jeff Clarke sat in interrogation room 1. He looked at the two way mirror and smiled. Gibbs looked down at him.

"He doesn't look like a guy who murdered his wife." Tony questioned.

"DiNozzo, you ever been married?"

"No, Boss"

"Well don't jump to conclusions. I've been married four times. I know the look in the eye, and yes Ziva, the best way to a mans heart, is through the chest with a sharp knife." Walking to the door and down to interrogation room 1

"Why do I feel he is not happy?" Tony questioned.

****

He slapped the papers on the desk. He leaned down, staring the Sergeant in the eye.

"Well?" he asked.

"Yep. Special Agent Gibbs. Thank you for asking."

"That's not what I asked, Sergeant Clarke"

Jeff smiled, he knew the score and being intelligence……..

"Sir. I did not murder my wife. We were going for a reconciliation."

"You know she was pregnant, Sergeant?" Gibbs questioned.

"No, no…no, I didn't"

"Good, so a DNA sample would not go amiss." as he headed for the door. Ducky was in the framework.

****

Sometimes he hated his job. He sifted though the new mail. A new letter. Damn he'd touched. He slipped the gloves on, and opened the envelope. The tarot card. Justice he turned it over and read:-

"_**Time**__ weighs heavy on my mind,_

_The scales of justice must be blind,_

_What she did to me was wrong,_

_She is now, where she should,… belong."_

_**Time**_, again but this was different. It was almost as if written by a second person. No this was written by the same person as before, only this time he had twisted the clue to point in another direction.

****

He laid the evidence down and looked at it. He read it again. Time weighs heavy…. The scales of justice…. And the tarot card Justice……..Justice….Blind…….He thought of his mythology. Lady Justice … personifying the moral force that underlies the legal system. Carrying scales and sometimes wearing a blindfold she frequently adorned courtrooms and courthouses.

He laid the other clues out and looked again. He was missing something. But what………….

"Jethro, Sergeant Clarke is the father of our dead POs' baby." he heard Ducky say.

"I want him back in here now……….You hear me DiNozzo." he shouted. "NOW"

"Yes Boss." as Tony gets on the phone.

****

He walked into the room. He had the air of a superior officer. He sat down opposite his prey. He looked at the Sergeant. "You're not telling me something. Want to tell me? Or do you want an attorney?"

"I did not kill my wife, Gibbs."

"I know that. But you did tamper with evidence and that is incriminating."

"I could have killed him, but I thought it better if you guys got to him first."

"So you left clues. How did you know where your wife was?" Gibbs questioned.

"He…..I hadn't heard from Clara for a couple of days. I followed him. He moved the body back to her apartment. Yes I waited, and then left it how you found. Yes I called." Sergeant Clarke replied.

"Tell me Jeff. Who was your wifes' attorney and what firm?"

Gibbs got up and moved behind the Sergeant. He placed his hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Jeff, but the baby was yours."

He saw Jeffs' shoulders droop and then the uncontrollable shuddering of a man crying. He looked away. How he wished he was more understanding. Compassionate.

He indicated to Ziva, to take over. He couldn't stay here.

****

They waited outside the Law Court. That was Sergeant Jeff Clarke and Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. They watched the man run down the steps. Gibbs stepped forward. "Alex Timmes. I would like to talk to you in connection to the death of Clara Watson a PO in the Navy."

"And you are who? to be precise?" he half laughed,

"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS and this," indicating to Jeff, " Is your lovers', sorry dead lovers, husband." flashing his badge at the attorney.

"I would say Ex, Agent Gibbs." Timmes sneered. "Ex, as in ex husband."

"And you, as Ex lover. You knew she was going to go back to him. She told you about the baby. How she thought, it might be her husbands. You just couldn't take that."

"Yes. I killed the bitch". Timmes said. Gibbs grabbed Jeffs' arm, it would only make it look worse.

"She said, she was pregnant, and how she thought it was yours." looking at the Sergeant. "I just couldn't face the fact that she wanted to return to the person, she just divorced. No, I helped divorce."

"So you hit her. Not very hard but enough for her to hit her head, off what……….I need a warrant to search your apartment?" Gibbs retorted.

"No, the table. She fell to the floor. I tried to revive………."

"Why the freezer, Alex?" Gibbs asked quietly.

"I needed time to think. What to do ……how to dispose of the body. It would smell, I had to do something, anything………I panicked."

"So back to her apartment. You left the body, next to the table, in another place. Made it look like she had fainted. I mean in her condition………."

"Yess………..I didn't, know I was being watched."

"She was my wife………."

"EX, remember" Timmes shouted.

"She was having my child…..you bast…………" as Jeff took a swing at Timmes, Gibbs grabbed his arm. "No Jeff. Let's get HIM," looking at the attorney, " A better one."

*****

"How you work it out Gibbs?" DiNozzo asked.

"That Tony, is why, I am who I am, and where I am. No, it was the scales of justice. That made it a law firm. I needed the attorney who represented her. I had my suspicions. Jeff followed Timmes. Watched as he carried her body into the apartment. He had a key. Well, they were trying for a reconciliation. He saw the body, the bruise on her head. He left the clues."

"Where, or should that be what, is Marine Sergeant Jeff Clarke, going to do now?" McGee asked.

"Told me he had applied for Iraq or Afghanistan. Anywhere away from here. But it won't be until after the trial." Gibbs replied. The phone rang.

"Gibbs, yep……… Grab your gear guys, we got a body in Norfolk."

"Just another happy day at the OK Corral, Boss" as Tony got a slap on the head.

"You could say that" Gibbs smiles the smile heading for the elevator.


End file.
